Help to Save Baydon St. Nicholas Church

Church Updates:- July 2021.
Planning permission is now being sought from Wiltshire County Council to effect the repairs required to stop the Chancel wall collapsing.
The Report of the actual extent of the damage can be found here and the proposed remidial works here

These proposed works have been approved by the Diocese, so now it's just the County Council. To see the full application please follow this link
Wilts Planning PL/2021/06118

A plea for support:
The future of the church building depends on your support.

On the 5th December 2018, around fifty people from the village crammed into the church, at least, into the parts not shrouded in tarpaulins, shielding the area from which the lead roof had been stolen!

At the meeting Canon Simon Weeden, then Rector of the Whitton Team, outlined the current situation with the building. The replacement of the stolen lead roof  would be covered by insurance; however, the cracks in the East wall are widening to the point of urgency because of potential danger, there are problems with the vestry and the South wall, and other areas of the roof and the interior will need attention.
Initial estimates are that simply making the building watertight and sound will cost between £100,000 and £200,000!

Please click here to see the full report from this initial Open Meeting.

Church Appeal News :-

Any assistance would be gratefully received, to donate, please go to https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/9087

Church Updates:-

Since October 2018 Donni Blackwell, one of our Church Wardens, has been working to repair and restore our little church, St Nicholas Baydon.

Our LCC has been raising money for 3 years to repair the Vestry and stonework and we had just reached our goal. Donni Blackwell and Tina Evans (Church Wardens) had just set about filling in the onerous faculty forms. It was then found that the cracks in the chancel wall, which had been monitored over the last few years, were expanding dramatically. The wall is in grave danger of falling out and permission to construct scaffolding to support the wall was given.
Then the lead was stolen from our roof, and inches of water poured in. Tarpaulins were fixed in place by a small team of volunteers, but high winds dislodged them and allowed water to pour in again. The insurers were informed and a temporary roof was eventually installed.
We are very grateful for the two dehumidifiers donated by people in Ramsbury.
We are now waiting for Stainless Steel quotes for the North aisle and we have found a Structural engineer, who is very sympathetic to our cause, to offer expertise as to the necessary works. Peter Chambers rannochpnc@outlook.com has kindly agreed to look after the Building Finance project and has already contacted several funding sources and spread the message of our crisis through various media. Until we have actual figures for the works we cannot apply for any grants.

We have had donations from Baydon residents and from members of other local churches but we are a long way off having enough to restore the chancel wall! A great number of people have repeated their offers of help and I wish I could offer you more positive news about our plight, but sadly at this moment in time it is not possible.
We just have to remain positive that it will be sorted....

Our thanks go to Tom McGowran for his offer to initiate and run a metal detector day. If anyone else has any other ideas on how we can raise significant amounts of money for the Building fund please do contact Peter Chambers.

If you would like to make a donation our bank details are:
 For building fund:       09-01-54 87637089
 For non-building fund: 09-01-54 80637083
If possible please gift aid any donation by requesting a Gift aid form from that can be found in the Church

For more information please contact Church Warden:
Robert Smart - tel: 07921 122909

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"Temporary" Scaffolding Brace to support the Chancel Wall.
A scaffolding brace has been erected around the East corner of the Church. ‘We have been monitoring the exterior cracks in the north/east corner of the Chancel wall which, very quickly, seem to have got much bigger.
Churchwarden Donni Blackwell worked tirelessly with the Diocesan Advisory Committee to obtain permission (a faculty) to erect supporting scaffolding until such time as we can move forward to have these walls permanently repaired. The scaffolding is designed to support this corner of the church, but it does means that this part of the building has now become a priority and other works will have to be put on hold.
We would very much welcome any expertise and (or) financial help that anyone has to offer in helping us with the ever-increasing building problems. A group has been set up to pursue funding and grants and we thank all those that attended the public meeting.
St Nicholas Church

Click a picture below to see the extent of the work.

More information and details will be posted on this page as they become available, but keep an eye on the Whitton Team website http://whittonteam.org.uk

 

 

 

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